Tasting Room wine bistro review

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tasting room

Tasting Room wine bistro is located at Bangsar above Wine Cellar. It’s a wine bistro operated by the same people who runs Wine Cellar. The interior is very tastefully decorated and there is an al fresco balcony with seating arrangements for the nicotine brigade.

tasting room interior

I went there for dinner with Nicole and Grace. I was supposed to meet up with Nicole earlier at The Curve for a late lunch after finalizing the details for my sister’s wedding in KL but she couldn’t make it so we decided on an early dinner at Tasting Room instead.

into the future

Tasting Room has a themed wine tasting menu called Wine Flights. I went for the Into The Future 3-glass experience. It’s described as “A unique opportunity to time travel” and comes with the tag “Please ask for more information or be really adventurous; take the flight and see where you end up!”

future making

Into The Future is priced at RM 35 and includes a 2006 Alkoomi Shiraz-Viognier, a 2016 Alkoomi Shiraz-Viognier and a 2026 Alkoomi Shiraz-Viognier (!). You’re supposed to compare the taste between the original 2006 Alkoomi Shiraz-Viognier (the control glass) and see how well the wine ages with time.
 
into the future paper

The three glasses of wine (all originally the 2006 Alkoomi Shiraz-Viognier) are arranged on a paper liner and the sommelier starts the process of aging the wine 10 years into the future for a taste test comparison and then 20 years into the future.

chef du vin

I’ve read about this in Nicole’s blog and it gives you the opportunity to sample wines many years into the future by using a contraption that ages wine automagically at a rate of one year per second.

future 66

I also asked to age the wine 60 years into the future to beat Nicole’s 50 year old futuristic wine and ended up tasting a 66 year old wine from the future. It did lose much of it’s taste and was rather flat in nature but hey, I drank a wine from the year 2066! =D

nicole wine

Anyway, we started off with a bottle of wine that Nicole recommended. It’s a sweet white wine with a really long and foreign name which I couldn’t for the life of me commit to memory.

spaghetti raw egg

I opted for the Spaghetti Carbonara (RM 26.90) which is served with a half cracked raw egg in the middle of the dish. I was impressed by the presentation. You’re supposed to stir in the raw egg into the pasta.

fois gras

Nicole had the customized version of the Pan Seared Fois Gras (RM 29.90) which is described as “lightly fried with enoki mushrooms and expertly paired with delicate salmon roe quiche”.

pasta duo

Grace went for the Pasta Duo (RM 29.90) which is “an unusual combination of squid-ink angel hair and green tea soba pasta served with moist and juicy pan-seared scallop”.

second bottle

We ordered another bottle of wine and ended up staying for more than two hours. The total came up to about RM 400+ which is pretty reasonable, considering the two bottles of wine that we ordered. I think this is the second most expensive dinner I’ve ever had, the first was for a bill of RM 500+ for two. 😉

tasting room us

Tasting Room is a great place for gourmet food cooked with passion and fine wine and the ambiance is perfect for conversation. The proprietor is friendly and the sommelier is very helpful. It gets two thumbs up from me.

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39 thoughts on “Tasting Room wine bistro review”

  4. That is one very thick and flat “angel hair”. I thought angel hair supposed to be the thinnest among the rod pasta, that one on grace’s plate looks more like a fettuccine to me.
    I am tempted by your carbonara. Mushroom with bacon, yum~~~

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  6. Wow! I’ve never heard of a contraption that can age wine. That’s really impressive. And the food is very well priced as well! Not like through the ceiling prices.. Thanks for the recommendations. 🙂

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  7. Ageing wine in seconds? I guess real Gourmets are not gonna agree with that … but oh well they also don’t agree with me mixing red wine with coke lol

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  8. I dont care much abt wine.. but OMG… the food all look soooo yummy!
    And yeah fish fish, Angel hair is one of the finest pasta, the squid ink one looks like linguine. But still.. Very Yummy La~

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  9. Hmm, food looks very good, and I’ve tasted many (too many!?) Alkoomi wines, and they have a decent range of very drinkable reds.
    But the “aging device?” Oh dear, never, ever, give me a wine that has been treated with such disadian for it’s true character and real age and genuine taste. I know we can’t all afford Mouton Rothschild 1964 bottles, but I’d rather drink a day-old Albanian red than an adulterated decent bottle of any modern vintage. Purely IMV(biased)O, of course!
    (Was the white a Gewurztraminer by any chance? California produces some superb examples….feeling “thirsty” now…LOL!)

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  10. Hmm, food looks very good, and I’ve tasted many (too many!?) Alkoomi wines, and they have a decent range of very drinkable reds.
    But the “aging device?” Oh dear, never, ever, give me a wine that has been treated with such disdain for it’s true character and real age and genuine taste. I know we can’t all afford Mouton Rothschild 1964 bottles, but I’d rather drink a day-old Albanian red than an adulterated decent bottle of any modern vintage. Purely IMV(biased)O, of course!
    (Was the white a Gewurztraminer by any chance? California produces some superb examples….feeling “thirsty” now…LOL!)

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  15. Oh man. Now I’m going to try to actually say something instead of the customary blurublublub. :>
    First of all, what shirt is that, man? Me thinks me wants.
    Secondleeh, a fine palate isn’t mandatory to enjoy good food and fine wine (or a fine bottle alone). With absolutely no shit, no pedantisms a la “how cultural it is, to dive into the ineffable world of wine! aaaah! :)” note the “happy” booze the thing gives!
    It’s so great to become all f’ked up only with red! :X
    Now, about the wine aging thingie, you see, it does not exactly age the wine — it oxidizes it. However, note that, since the bottled wine is sort of sealed, only with a very small quantity of air present — mostly from the ullage, with a next to irrelevant (at least in quantity; in effect, opinions vary a lot) air penetration through the cork — its aging isn’t really oxidative: where is the oxygen for that?! — but reductive in nature.
    So, oxidizing your wine with the help of a catalyst a lot quicker than with the good ole’ air exposure in a decanter, you get a) softer tannins, perhaps evoking those that will come with aging, and b) a reduction of acidity, also “as” in natural aging. The formation of the bouquet is complex, poorly understood organic (bio!) chemistry — and for the little beetch to come, only time…
    The «Clef au Vin» can, possibly, be useful in order to know how many years a wine will live — and for the sake of strangeness, too — me loves strange stuff. The gadget is described here
    http://www.freepatentsonline.com/EP1405903.html
    with some scientific foundations that have to be taken with a grain of salt 😛
    Here,
    http://tv.winelibrary.com/2007/07/12/clef-du-vin-goes-up-against-chateau-montelena-and-more-episode-274/
    Gary Vaynerchuk hosts a TV show episode on this. I found it funny, actually, when I saw it — drinking.
    Well. Now this is becoming heavy shit. Returning to your lunch, lucky you. You had nice food and a not overpriced fine Syrah with an agréable companion in a cool looking place — not to mention what you can not be showing (aha, didn’t resist)…
    XX 😛 HB!

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  16. Carbonara is my absolute fav. I order this almost everytime I’m at a pasta-serving outlet but I’ve never seen a half egg presentation this way before. I MUST go try it.
    Ageing the wine is the 1st time I heard. Wow! Anyone game to makan with me???

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  18. butterscotch: Yeah, it tastes great too. It’s the bits below the salmon (?) – quite a generous portion of duck liver too. 🙂
    Nicole: Thanks for the donuts that day, it was my dinner while flying home the next day. 🙂
    Cheers Nicole!
    KT: I had to do my sister’s wedding stuff, I only went out for dinner on the first night and the second night, the rest of the time I spent with my future in laws discussing stuff. My mom is making the wedding video, which is quite amazing due to her lack of technical skillz but I think I will be enlisted to help soon.
    We’ll meet up for drinks next time I’m in KL, buddy. Cheers!
    fish fish: Wow, you have an excellant eye for detail. 🙂
    The paper mat, if you noticed, actually says an Australian wine but they went for another wine during the Into the Future experience. Another detail oriented people to latch on. 🙂
    xSean: Hmm…it depends on the situation. I paid for this one coz I wanted to buy Grace dinner since I was crashing at her place. With my girlfriend, I usually pay for dinner but she pays once in a while, when my funds are running low. If it’s in a group, then we split the bill. Amongst friends, it’s usually taking turns to get the check. With female friends, it falls under the friends category, so it’s usually taking turns. That’s how things are done nowdays anyway.
    Jayelle: Yeah, I’ve never heard of one either and wanted to try it when I saw it on Nicole’s blog. So it’s great that she suggested Tasting Room for dinner. The prices are very reasonable for the food, and also for the wines, if you stay clear of the really rare and old wines. 🙂
    MI!: Yeah, the wine gourmets are gonna have a fit about this contraption. Heh! Red wine with coke! I’m not a wine snob but even I don’t agree with doing that. Jesus H. Christ. That’s blasphemy! Seriously, mate. I’ve seen people do that here too, as well as another heresy – putting ice cubes in wine. OMG!
    Well, whatever rocks your boat, my friend. I’m just kidding, I don’t do it myself, I drink wine as it is, I’m old skool that way, but if you like it with coke or ice cubes, by all means, buddy. 🙂
    Holly Jean: I read a really funny pun today:
    Hangover – The wrath of grapes
    (Wordplay on the novel The Grapes of Wrath). 🙂
    Intensecure: Well, it was more for the novelty value that for anything. 🙂 I like the concept, but it did taste a little bit too flat after the aging process. Especially the 66 year old wine.
    I have no idea what the white wine was (both bottles we ordered were whites) but it’s a sweet dessert wine.
    Don’t worry about spelling errors, we all make typos. I still love you. 😉
    BigBoysOven: Yeah, I have been craving for a bit of alcohol lately too but I must resist the temptation until Saturday (tomorrow) at the very least. I shouldn’t be drinking daily anyway, it’s not a very good idea for a recovering alcoholic and drug addict. 🙂
    nkwai: Well, basically the wine will taste “flatter” and less distinguished in character. You can taste the difference quite clearly between 10, 20 and 60 years. They don’t offer 60 years but you can ask the sommalier nicely if you want a ridiculous amount of aging. 🙂
    j..: Which shirt? My shirt or Nicole’s?
    I totally agree with your statement. I don’t know a lot about wines besides the basics, but I do like a good bottle of wine (prefer red wine over white wine). I love wine, it’s my favorite tipple after distilled spirits (but that’s a holdover from my binge drinking days when faster and harder hitting is better).
    Very interesting facts about the wine oxidizer. Thanks for the information! It exactly the sort of stuff that interests me. 🙂
    Primrose: I like cream based sauces in my pasta too. I’ve never seen the half raw egg presentation as well but I love it.
    I’ll be game to go but I’m not in KL right now.
    Darren: Yeah, the concept is really quite interesting. 🙂
    To think that it took so long to come up with a device like that after wine has been around for millenia.

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  20. j..: That’s a U2 shirt with the very interesting concept of concealed buttons and an “inner” pocket e.g. the left breast pocked is actually INSIDE the shirt when buttoned up and for all practical purposes…well, serves no purpose except to look different. 🙂

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